Review: Claw, Carnaby

Like a lot of new openings, Claw started out on the road at festivals and street food markets. Whilst their City Street Cafe is busy serving grab and go food, Carnaby becomes home to their first permanent restaurant.

As the name suggests Claw serves everything crab plus there is plenty of surf and turf options on the menu too. We managed to nab a seat at the kitchen counter during their soft launch this week. Head chef Josh Levy talked us through the menu explaining that all their seafood comes directly from fishermen for the best produce. It was great being right in front of the action and despite it being their second dinner serving ever they ran a tight ship and looked after us very well.

We nibbled on some bread and butter whilst we perused the menu which is split into 5 sections; crab, sea, land, plant and sweet.

The first dish we ordered (due to being highly recommended!) were the Crab Claws served in a garlic & lime butter. Moorish, messy and magnificent. Once we’d gobbled up all the crab meat we soaked the rest of our bread in the juices at the bottom of the plate. Do the same, you won’t regret it.

Next to the table was a portion of Fish Fingers made from today’s market fish, Pollock. The fish was light and fell apart after biting into the crisp batter. They were even better dipped in sriracha mayo, another must order.

Next up we gorged on Crab Mac n Cheese made with London Raclette & Hollandaise. Our front row seats meant we can confirm that the mac and cheese was made fresh which made all the difference. With each mouthful all the flavour combinations could be appreciated, the rich cheese, light crab meat and a dusting of onion and chives. Bravo indeed.

We also tried a portion of Crab Beignets, which we expected to be similar to crab doughnuts (crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside) but they were more like a combination of a crabcake and a fritter. They were very light and airy, and paired well with a dollop of crab mayo.

To finish up we shared a dessert of Toasted Milk Parfait, Sour Toffee and Gingersnap. The parfait was more like a sour milk ice cream which tasted delicious with toffee sauce and gingersnap biscuits. The chef treated us to a portion of the salted caramel and vanilla ice cream too which were also top notch.

Overall we had a delightfully crabby meal at Claw. We were envious of other dishes making there way out the kitchen but you only really need 4-5 dishes between 2 so we’ll have to wait for our next visit to enjoy some of the other options. The chicken wings, pork stuffed squid and cauliflower seemed particularly popular.

The soft launch ends on Thurs 11th Jan so visit within the next couple of days to enjoy 30% off the food bill.